


My Turn.

by bellatrix_black_Lestrange (bellatrix_black_lestrange)



Category: Black Swan (2010), Black Widow (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ballet, Ballet, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3877717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellatrix_black_lestrange/pseuds/bellatrix_black_Lestrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Black Widow: The Itsy Bitsy Spider Black Swan AU.</p>
<p>Yelena Belova is a rising star at the New York City ballet after defecting from Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, where the famous Natalia Romanova graduated years ago. Now, they're both at the New York City Ballet, auditioning for their production of Swan Lake. Yelena is determined to dethrone the reigning queen of their ballet, and finds herself growing obsessed with Natasha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Turn.

Watching her was a true pleasure, even through the cracked studio door. She was sinew and muscle, cutting through the air with sensuality and passion. Oh, how Yelena wished she would fall. She knew she shouldn’t be watching.

Snap out of it. Focus. Give your audition.

“Thank you, Natasha.” Tomas’s voice came from somewhere that sounded far-off. “Deciding which swan you are to play will prove difficult. Perhaps I’ll give you a challenge and have you dance both the black and the white. A new take on the ballet.” He waved Natasha off.

Yelena was next. There was no one in the entire company who could match her in technique. Her flawless precision even surpassed that of Natasha, their prima ballerina. She began. There was just a rehearsal pianist, but in her mind, the music swelled.

She was a girl made of glass, every bit as delicate, rigid, and beautiful as the material itself, just as Odette should be. Her face was innocent and tenuous, just as Yelena herself wasn’t. The perfect white swan was right in front of Tomas’s eyes, if only he would finally admit it, god damn it. There was poetry in such perfection

There was always so much praise for her solos, in all their finesse and technical brilliance. Yelena had only arrived a year earlier, but she quickly rose up in the corps de ballet to dance her first solo after only being with them for six months. Still, there was so much more praise for Natasha, who, in Yelena’s not so humble opinion had gotten careless and old. They called Natasha the Russian jewel of the New York City Ballet, but Yelena swore that title belonged to her. Natasha was an American now.

Yelena caught herself thinking of Natasha during her dance. Her brow furrowed and she missed a beat, and then missed a step. No! 

“Stop, stop.” Tomas raised a hand and cut off the pianist. Yelena fell out of her pointe. “I know you can dance the white swan. You’ve proved it to me more than enough times. You’re easily the best dancer in the company. You know this.”

Yelena did know this. But she couldn’t even take the compliment, because she knew the word “but” was coming.

“…But you seem to lack passion of late.” Tomas emerged from behind his casting director’s table. “I’m tempted to cast one dancer as both swans, black and white. And I know you could do both, with unparalleled finesse. Audition again. I’ll pretend I didn’t see that. But this time, seduce me.”

She began the pas de deux. In that moment, Yelena resented Tomas. She couldn’t possibly seduce him, but the possibility of dancing the part of both Odette and Odile and surpassing Natasha once and for all seduced her. Yelena was pale fire. After what Tomas said, she burned inside. She couldn’t look at him. Instead, she thought of her opponent, and how lovely it would be to take her down. Yelena was coming for everything Natasha held dear.

“Beautiful, Lena.” Tomas interjected. “Attack it! Attack it!”

One fouette after another, Yelena felt as though she was fighting rather than dancing. Her art was armed combat, and she would tear Natasha limb from limb. 

“Enough. That’s what I wanted to see.”

Silently, Yelena exited the studio with her lips pursed and head high in the air. She secretly hoped she would run into Natasha on her way out, and maybe step on her foot. No such luck yet.

But once she got in the locker room, Yelena came across Natasha’s dance bag and leather jacket sitting on the bench outside the showers. She heard water running. No one else was milling about the room. Natasha was in the shower.

Yelena picked up the jacket and instantly smelled the musky, smoky jasmine and vetivert perfume her rival always wore. It was her signature. For a second, she wanted to spit on it or burn it. Instead, she slipped it on. It fit like a glove. Her streak of wickedness grew. Yelena’s small, bony, delicate hands flew to the duffel bag and settled inside it like doves. She felt around for the makeup case and unearthed Natasha’s red lipstick from it.

Inside the shower room was a dressing counter and a large mirror that was fogged with water vapor. Yelena wiped the condensation madly, clearing a space to do her work. In large, angry red letters she wrote WHORE. She half considered writing it in Russian, but Natasha would know immediately who it was.

Rather than leaving after she had finished her handiwork, Yelena hung back a moment and almost hoped Natasha would come outside and see. The water turned off, and Yelena had to make a mad dash for it. She ran out of the shower room undetected and deposited Natasha’s jacket down on her bag. A ballerina could walk with footfalls no heavier than a cat’s. The cast list would be up tomorrow and Yelena couldn’t wait to see the look on Natasha’s face.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still deciding whether I should have Yelena be cast as the white swan, Odette, and Natasha as the black swan, Odile, or I should do exactly what was done in the 2010 film and have Yelena dance both swans, with Natasha as an understudy. OR Natasha dance both swans with Yelena as an understudy. Tell me which would interest you, and I will consider it in my decision.


End file.
